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A Quick Guide to Hardware and Operating Systems
(Revised April 26th 2010)
Advice
Please call Phil Gold (416-250-6777 Ext 224) for up to the minute information or advice, since the situation changes quickly.
What's changed recently
New six and eight core chips from Intel
Spring is here and Intel has just released new multicore chips on a 32nm process. Core 2 chips are now being replaced by the next generation of Intel chips for notebooks, desktops, workstations and servers (Core i7/i5/i3). For notebooks you can get 2 or 4 core chips. For desktops, workstations and dual processor servers there are 4 or 6 core chips. For quad processor servers there are 8 core chips. If you use any of these chips be sure to turn Hyper-Threading off.
Processors
AXIS makes strong demands on the floating-point capabilities of your processor, so we will always advise you to buy the best floating-point performance you can afford. We recommend Quad-core processors where available so you can take advantage of AXIS Distributed processing.
1. Desktops
Intel Six-Core Chips
The following chip carries our top desktop recommendation. It is 50% more powerful than the best quad core chip.
- Core i7 980X 3.33 GHz
Intel Quad-Core Chips
The following chips carry a recommendation if you cannot afford the Core i7 980X.
- Core i7 975 3.33 GHz
- Core i7 965 3.20 GHz
- Core i7 960 3.20 GHz
- Core i7 950 3.06 GHz
- Core i7 940 2.93 GHz
- Core i7 930 2.80 GHz
- Core i7 870 2.93 GHz
- Core i7 860 2.80 GHz
- Core i5 750 2.67 GHz
Intel Core 2 Duo, Core 2 Quad and AMD Chips
Intel Core 2 and AMD desktop chips are no longer recommended since the Intel Core i7 chips offer such superb performance. We do not recommend single or dual core chips since 4/6-core chips are now readily available.
2. Notebooks
Intel Quad-Core Chips
We recommend this Core i7 chip for the highest possible performance in a laptop today when using distributed processing.
- Core i7 920XM 2.00 GHz
Intel Dual-Core Chips
The following models are strongly recommended:
- Core i7 620M 2.67 GHz
- Core i7 610E 2.53 GHz
- Core i5 540M 2.53 GHz
- Core i5 520M 2.40 GHz
They have a higher clock speed but fewer cores.
Intel Core 2 and AMD Chips
Intel Core 2 and AMD notebook chips are no longer recommended since the Intel Core i5 / Core i7 chips offer such superb performance.
3. Workstations and Servers
Racks of dual-processor servers are a popular choice for scaling AXIS under Distributed Processing and Grid Computing. Where space is at a premium, Blade servers do an excellent job. Please note that disk drives capacity and speed are critical in these applications – please call for details.
We no longer recommend the use of any single or dual-core processors, since excellent 4/6/8-core processors are now available.
Intel Xeon
For dual-processor servers, we recommend the new generation 5600 series Xeon six-core processors based on i7 technology. These servers hold 12 cores.
- Xeon X5680 3.33 GHz 6 Cores (The best Xeon processor currently available)
- Xeon X5670 2.93 GHz 6 Cores
- Xeon X5660 2.80 GHz 6 Cores
- Xeon X5650 2.67 GHz 6 Cores
The following 5600 series Xeon chips has only four cores (8 cores per server) but is still recommended.
- Xeon X5677 3.47 GHz 4 Cores
If you want a 4 processor server the new Xeon 7500 (8-core) series processor is a big improvement on the 7300 (4-core) series and 7400 (6 core) series, but the current maximum clock speed of 2.27 GHz is not as fast as we would like to see, so we do not generally recommend it in preference to the Xeon X5680.
Our recommended 4 processor server (32-cores) will be based on the following chip:
- Xeon X7560 2.27 GHz 8 Cores
AMD Opteron
- We do not recommend any Opteron processors at this time.
Run Times (* Recommended)
Here are some estimated run times for a sample AXIS batch job:
Notebook Processors |
Clock Speed | Time |
| Core Duo T2600 (dual-core) | 2.16 GHz | 1450 secs |
| Core 2 Duo T7200 (dual-core) | 2.00 GHz | 1360 secs |
| Core 2 Duo T7500 (dual-core) | 2.20 GHz | 1230 secs |
| Core 2 Duo T7700 (dual-core) | 2.40 GHz | 1180 secs |
| Core 2 Duo T7800 (dual-core) | 2.60 GHz | 1100 secs |
| Core 2 Duo T9300 (dual-core) | 2.50 GHz | 1110 secs |
| Core 2 Duo T9400 (dual-core) | 2.53 GHz | 1050 secs |
| Core 2 Duo T9550 (dual-core) | 2.66 GHz | 1010 secs |
| Core 2 Duo T9600 (dual-core) | 2.80 GHz | 980 secs |
| Core 2 Duo T9800 (dual-core) | 2.93 GHz | 950 secs |
| Core 2 Duo T9900 (dual-core) | 3.06 GHz | 930 secs |
| Core 2 Duo X9100 (dual-core) | 3.06 GHz | 930 secs |
| Core 2 Quad Q9100 (quad-core) | 2.26 GHz | 575 secs |
| Core 2 Quad QX9300 (quad-core) | 2.53 GHz | 520 secs |
| 2.00 GHz | 510 secs | |
Core i7 Duo 620M* (dual-core) |
2.67 GHz | 760 secs |
Core i5 Duo 540M* (dual-core) |
2.53 GHz | 810 secs |
Desktop Processors |
Clock Speed | Time |
| Core 2 Duo E6750 (dual-core) | 2.66 GHz | 1000 secs |
| Core 2 Duo E6850 (dual-core) | 3.00 GHz | 930 secs |
| Core 2 Duo E8400 (dual-core) | 3.00 GHz | 890 secs |
| Core 2 Duo E8500 (dual-core) | 3.16 GHz | 870 secs |
| Core 2 Duo E8600 (dual-core) | 3.33 GHz | 840 secs |
| Core 2 Quad Q6600 (quad-core) | 2.40 GHz | 600 secs |
| Core 2 Quad Q6700 (quad-core) | 2.66 GHz | 550 secs |
| Core 2 Quad Q9450 (quad-core) | 2.66 GHz | 500 secs |
| Core 2 Quad Q9550 (quad-core) | 2.83 GHz | 470 secs |
| Core 2 Quad Q9650 (quad-core) | 3.00 GHz | 450 secs |
| Core i7 Quad 920 (quad-core HT off) | 2.66 GHz | 440 secs |
| Core i7 Quad 860* (quad-core HT off) | 2.80 GHz | 430 secs |
| Core i7 Quad 870* (quad-core HT off) | 2.93 Ghz | 420 secs |
| Core i7 Quad 940* (quad-core HT off) | 2.93 GHz | 410 secs |
| Core i7 Quad 950* (quad-core HT off) | 3.06 GHz | 395 secs |
| Core i7 Quad 960* (quad-core HT off) | 3.20 GHz | 395 secs |
| Core i7 Quad 965* (quad-core HT off) | 3.20 GHz | 380 secs |
| Core i7 Quad 975* (quad core HT off) | 3.33 GHz | 372 secs |
| Core i7 980X* (six-core HT off) | 3.33 GHz | 255 secs |
Servers Using Distributed Processing |
Clock Speed | Time |
| Opteron 280 (2 dual-core processors) | 2.40 GHz | 780 secs |
| Opteron 285 (2 dual-core processors) | 2.60 GHz | 730 secs |
| Opteron 2356 (2 quad-core processors) | 2.30 GHz | 370 secs |
| Opteron 2360 (2 quad-core processors) | 2.5 GHz | 340 secs |
| Xeon 5150 (2 dual-core processors) | 2.66 GHz | 520 secs |
| Xeon 5160 (2 dual-core processors) | 3.00 GHz | 470 secs |
| Xeon E5345 (2 quad-core processors) | 2.33 GHz | 330 secs |
| Xeon X5355 (2 quad-core processors) | 2.66 GHz | 310 secs |
| Xeon X5365 (2 quad-core processors) | 3.00 GHz | 290 secs |
| Xeon E5472 (2 quad-core processors) | 3.00 GHz | 260 secs |
| Xeon X5472 (2 quad-core processors) | 3.00 GHz | 260 secs |
| Xeon X5460 (2 quad-core processors) | 3.16 GHz | 250 secs |
| Xeon X5470 (2 quad-core processors) | 3.33 GHz | 230 secs |
| Xeon X5482 (2 quad-core processors) | 3.20 GHz | 230 secs |
| Xeon X5492 (2 quad-core processors) | 3.40 GHz | 220 secs |
| Xeon X5560 (2 quad-core processors HT off) | 2.80 GHz | 230 secs |
| Xeon X5570 (2 quad-core processors HT off) | 2.93 GHz | 220 secs |
| Xeon W5580 (2 quad-core processors HT off) | 3.20 GHz | 200 secs |
| Xeon W5590 (2 quad-core processors HT off) | 3.33 GHz | 195 secs |
| Xeon X5677* (2 quad-core processors HT off) | 3.47 GHz | 188 secs |
| Xeon X5650* (2 six-core processors HT off) | 2.67 GHz | 162 secs |
| Xeon X5660* (2 six-core processors HT off) | 2.80 GHz | 154 secs |
| Xeon X5670* (2 six-core processors HT off) | 2.93 GHz | 146 secs |
| Xeon X5680* (2 six-core processors HT off) | 3.33 GHz | 134 secs |
| Xeon E7340 (4 quad-core processors) | 2.40 GHz | 170 secs |
| Xeon X7350 (4 quad-core processors) | 2.93 GHz | 150 secs |
| Opteron 880 (4 dual-core processors) | 2.40 GHz | 420 secs |
| Opteron 885 (4 dual-core processors) | 2.60 GHz | 400 secs |
| Opteron 8218 (4 dual-core processors) | 2.60 GHz | 390 secs |
| Opteron 8220 (4 dual-core processors) | 2.80 GHz | 380 secs |
| Opteron 8356 (4 quad-core processors) | 2.30 GHz | 190 secs |
| Opteron 8360 (4 quad-core processors) | 2.50 GHz | 180 secs |
These tests can be quite sensitive to the types of jobs run in AXIS, and to the disk drives and memory systems in the PC. For multiple processors and cores, distributed processing is turned on using the automatic helper option.
This table should be used as a rough guide only.
I also want to draw your attention to some factors that can stand between you and good performance:
- Hyper-Threading . We strongly recommend that you turn off Intel Hyper-Threading when running on Intel processors. It will adversely affect AXIS run time.
- Real time virus checking . This can cause a massive slowdown in AXIS run times – up to four times slower. It can also make AXIS unstable, leading to random crashes, since it can lock files AXIS needs to open. We require you to add the directories that AXIS writes to into your exclusion list if you run real time scanning. These directories include the directory where AXIS is installed, the SPARE directory, the Dataset Path and the location of the Import / Export database. For details: www.ggy.com/support/kbase/kbdetails.asp?searchterm=&articleid=271
- Formula Tables Accelerator . To get the best performance if you are using Formula Tables, remember to turn on the Formula Tables Accelerator.
- Network bandwidth and latency . We recommend a fast network. We require at least 1Gbps for distributed processing or GridLink. To check whether your network is providing good performance, you can run this simple test. Run an AXIS Calendar Year Recalculation batch job, without distributed processing, on identical datasets residing in two locations – first in the same machine where AXIS is running, and then in a location across the network. If the two times vary by more than 5%, then you have a problem. Please contact GGY for details.
AXIS needs at least 512 MB per processor core. If you are buying a new machine it is better to buy at least 1 GB per processor core.
If you are running the Stochastic Processing Module, you will need extra memory. We require at least 1 GB of memory per processor core.
We recommend at least 2GB of memory since the Operating System needs the best part of a GB of memory for itself before AXIS is even loaded.
Please note that even if you have enough memory we strongly advise you to not run any disk or processor intensive applications at the same time as performing AXIS runs since AXIS itself is going to use the maximum amount of CPU power and disk access bandwidth available especially when distributed processing is used. Concurrent processes may affect performance and cause instability for AXIS runs.
AXIS allows you to export assumptions and projections. This can take up a lot of disk space. We suggest a minimum of 128 GB for a laptop and 250 GB for a desktop computer, not because AXIS needs this much space, but because these disks are extremely inexpensive today. The AXIS System files take up about 350 MB. You can now get drives for laptops with capacities of up to 500 GB. For desktops, you can get drives of up to 2 Terabytes each (and you can get 4 drives into 1 PC!).
AXIS requires a screen resolution of 1024 by 768 (XGA) or higher.
For a laptop we recommend at least a 14-inch screen and for a desktop a 17-inch LCD screen – the bigger the better.
We distribute AXIS and all updates via the Internet. If you do not have a good Internet connection we can supply AXIS on a CD. This CD can be read in any optical drive.
Operating Systems
We currently support and recommend Windows XP, Windows 2003 Server, Windows 2008 Server, Windows HPC Server and Windows 7. We have found them to be very stable and much easier to manage than previous versions of Windows. We also support Windows Vista.
AXIS new releases no longer support Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows NT or Windows 2000.
Starting with AXIS 12.4 in February 2009, we require all computers running AXIS to have a new component installed:
- .NET Framework 3.5 SP1. Version 3.5 SP1 can coexist with earlier versions of the .NET Framework which should not be removed since they may be required for earlier versions of AXIS. Windows 2000 does not support Version 3.5 SP1 of the .NET Framework which is one of the prime reason we will no longer support this version of the operating system. Note that Microsoft has not been releasing Service Packs for Windows 2000 since 2005.
Please note that this component is free of charge and is available for download from Microsoft web site.
Note that Microsoft Windows Operating Systems are available in 32 bit and 64 bit versions. We recommend the 64 bit versions because they allow the use of large amounts of memory, while Vista 32 bit and XP 32 bit are limited to 3GB and Windows Server 32 bit Standard Edition and Windows Server 2008 32 bit Standard Edition are limited to 4GB.
For all GridLink farms we now recommend Microsoft HPC Server 2008 operating system. This 64 bit O/S is a subset of Widows Server 2008 64-bit edition and offers top performance and very inexpensive licensing.
Information for IT Professionals
For further information for IT Support click here: www.ggy.com/faq/techinfo.asp
Recommended Hardware for a GridLink Farm
You may be considering an 8 core farm or a 2048 core farm, or something in between. We strongly recommend you to consider your future needs before setting up even a small farm, so that you can continue to use the hardware you choose now as part of the larger farm you may need tomorrow.
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